Year 9 Exam Revision

Welcome to the blog Year 9  2013-2014!

Here are some key points to revise to help you with your exam next week.

We are assessing your ability to find information, make inferences and analyse in your reading and we are testing how well you can match your writing to form audience and purpose.

Tip Number 1 - Select and Retrieve

Read the source and highlight the topic sentences in each paragraph (the one which tells you what the subject is about). Then write in the margin what the main idea you get.

This will help you find information quickly when you look at the questions.

Tip Number 2 - Infer - A logical conclusion based on facts and your own experiences

Look at the question and highlight your trigger words (what the question wants you to focus on).

Skim read the source checking the key information you've noted down and think about the inferences you could make that match the trigger words.

Scan the paragraphs where the key information is and find quotations that can support your answer.

Double check your information to make sure it is the a logical inference.

Tip Number 3 - Analysis - Breaking something down into its key components and looking at the effect of them.

Here, remember to zoom in.

Find your key quotations and then zoom in - look at what the key words could indicate and suggest potential effects (being able to make a range of plausible interpretations means allows you to target the key information).

Tip Number 4 - Writing

Remember to focus on these 5 areas. You must make a little plan and try to remember to include variety in every paragraph and vary your paragraphs.

You could use devices such as Triadic Structure and Rhetorical Questions.

You can use dashes, brackets and commas for parenthesis.

Make sure you have different sentence types and lengths.

Think about the impact of your vocabulary.

We've been working on discourse markers to indicate the direction of your writing. These will be key to access the higher levels.

The best way to revise for English is to practice. There are lots of texts and questions you can focus on the blog.

Happy Revising and Good Luck

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Year 9 Challenge - 6 Books in 6 Weeks

 The 6 books in 6 weeks reading challenge has kicked off. I started by getting into the swing of things with the book / genre of my choice and finished it within 5 days. Remember each time you finish your book you need to create a 6 sentences review capturing the essence of the text.

Genre of Choice - Whit by Iain Banks

I read The Wasp Factory as a 14 Year old and thoroughly enjoyed it but as I've grown older, I've particularly enjoyed the dark humour and descriptions of Scottish countryside of The Crow Road and others alike. Whit focuses on the dark secrets of a religious 'sect', the mission of the 'chosen one' Isis and the corrupting nature of power and belief. I found Bank's satirical take on organised religion particularly entertaining. He has a habit of building up the pomposity of his characters readying them for dramatic falls from grace. Overall the book gave me a nostalgic glance at an area that I grew up in and some great laughs along the way. I'd highly recommend it.

Non-Fiction - Touching the Void by Joe Simpson

After 5 Chapters I was hooked. As someone who seems to permanently injure his knees, some of the description of the mountain top injuries of Joe Simpson made me absolutely squirm. For something so technically written (lots of climbing jargon), there is vivid description and at its heart, an astounding tale of what the body can endure. As the voice inside Joe's head told him to keep going, I'm now channelling that voice at X-Fit class and pushing my body on past its breaking point. I wouldn't recommend a crash diet of severe injury, dehydration and falling over a lot as a way to lose 3 stone. I'll keep Simpson in mind as I hang safely harnessed in the Alps this summer.

Autobiography - Mighty Mouse by Iain McLauchlan

Science Fiction - The Caves of Steel by Isaac Assimov

Here is a turn up for the books - though reading with an open mind, I didn't expect to like Assimov. I've like dystopian fiction but never really sought out Science Fiction. I have read Day of the Triffids and another trilogy called the Tripods Trilogy but they never really stuck in my mind. This was a rip-roaring murder mystery set in a futuristic world and Assimov is startling accurate in his prediction of the future - an unsustainable population (8 Billion) expansion of cities and people living in closer proximity. I loved the antagonistic society hell bent on eradicating robots who 'come to our city and steal our jobs'. Sound familiar? Clearly a man at ease with sociology and the human psyche - I'll read more!

Counter Attack and Other Poems - Siegfried Sassoon

I'd been fascinated with the poetry of Sassoon ever since reading Pat Barker's Regeneration Trilogy as a teenager. The character, born in Barker's fiction based in fact novel, caught my imagination and I have become somewhat a Sassoon fanatic since. I read the last poems in this collection as teaching often limits you to a few set poems. What I love about Sassoon's work is the honest expression of conflict, not in war but in humanity. The beauty of the world captured in parts of his poem is always contrasted with the cruelty of the first world war. My favourites were 'Repression of War Experience' and 'Survivors' (penned at Craiglockart where Barker bases her fiction); what about 'Men who went out to battle, grim and glad; Children, with eyes that hate you, broken and mad.' for a condemning last line - beautiful!

Pre 1914 - Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

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Year 9 Homework Project

Your homework will be to create an anthology of 15 poems you have enjoyed from the list of poets on the next page.

You must bring in 3 of your favourite poems from 3 different poets each Friday. These will form part of the discussion on Friday's lessons so don't forget.

By the end of the half term you will be carrying out a written and oral presentation on your anthology covering:

Why you chose the poems?
What do you think caused the poets to write the poems (3 of your 15)?
What feelings are apparent within the poems (3 of your 15)?
Why you think poetry is given value in the curriculum?

Extended Written Response (2 sides of A4)

An analysis of your favourite poem and why it appeals to you.

Poets List

Edmund Spenser
William Shakespeare
John Donne
Andrew Marvel
Alexander Pope
Katherine Phillips
John Milton
Robert Burns
John Dryden
William Blake
William Wordsworth
John Keats
Samuel Coleridge
Sir Walter Scott
Alfred Lord Tennyson
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Robert Browning
Christina Rossetti
Siegfried Sassoon
Wilfred Owen
Ivor Gurney
Jessie Pope
Margaret Postgate Cole
Sylvia Plath
Ted Hughes
Margaret Atwood
U.A. Fanthorpe
John Agard
Maya Angelou
Chinua Achebe
Philip Larkin
Simon Armitage
Carol Ann Duffy
Seamus Heaney
Grace Nichols
John Cooper Clarke
Stevie Smith

Happy collating.

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Year 9 Homework and Exam Preparation

'It started on a warm summer's evening in ancient Greece circa 434 BC'



Meet Socrates - the man who taught Plato and Xenophon and was mentioned in plays by Aristophanes and works by Aristotle. He was a thinker and not a writer so remains an enigma. What we do know about him was that he enjoyed thinking about thinking and how we could challenge ourselves to think better and he was sentenced to death by drinking a fatal concoction having been convicted of corrupting the minds of Athenians.

His final words during his trial were:  

"The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways — I to die, and you to live. Which is better God only knows."


What does this have to do with your exam and revision?

Socrates challenged students to think in deeper ways. I've asked you to look at various methods of electronic communication as part of your revision. Now for you to move from Uni-structural (Level 3) thought to Extended Abstract (Level 7+) thought (see the diagram and remember Thursday's lessons) you need to question yourself so that you can develop deeper thinking and please Socrates!



I've asked you to look at the electronic communication your partake in during this week and consider how and why the person is using language in this way. Here are a series of questions (Socrates created these and loved using them with the young people he came into contact with) to help you extend your thinking.

So first of all:

Consider whether the language used is formal or informal then go through the series of questions to help you think in a deeper way.

1) Why is the person using the language they are using? (Think Context, Audience, Platform, Person)

2) Is this always the case? (Do they always communicate this way? Does a young person always use slang? Is an older person always formal? etc etc)

3) What is your evidence for this? (What has helped you answer the previous questions? Are there certain words that stand out and back up your ideas? Can you link this to a wider point or wider evidence relating to communication?)

4) Is there another way of looking at this? (What are the counter-arguments to your point? Could someone else look at this and see it in a different way?)

5) What are the consequences of this? (Do you think the reception of the communication is as the person writing intended it? What effect does it have on the audience?)

6) Why was it important to consider all of the above? (Has our deeper thinking brought out information that wouldn't necessarily be apparent in our first answer to the question? Is there anything particularly interesting that has come out because of your questioning?)

If you are effectively answering each of these questions then you are achieving Extended Abstract thought!

Choose a piece of communication you've received recently (Twitter, Facebook, Kik, Text, Instant Messenger, WhatsApp etc) and have a go - post your answers below and I can rate your thinking!

Good luck

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